Chapter Eight: Backfire
They arrived at the Ribs, the broad golden gates of the Heart. About seven guards stopped them and begun approaching them slowly. The Ribs were unusually heavily guarded today.
James panicked. “Cornie, Jones. What do we do with him?”
“Jones should be alright,” Cornie said. “The back windows are tinted; no one would spot him, hopefully. But would do we do with you.”
She was right. By now, the Commander back at the Kidney would have sent a Distress Neuron Call to all the Guardians in the City. Everyone would be looking for James Winter.
But there was nothing to be done now. Two Guardians had arrived at the car. One of them at James’ side and the other at Cornie’s. James let his head drop. He really wished he had worn a hooded jacket today or perhaps some glasses.
It was only a minute or so no before he had a gun trained at his head.
“Evening, lady, what can we do for you?” the Guardian at Cornie’s side said. His eyes flitted over Cornie’s badge (James was glad she hadn’t thrown that away). “Well, we’re here for um, Guardian business....”
James hoped there really was such a thing as Guardian business.
But the Commander totally bought it. Of course. Park here, please. Inside’s a little bit crowdy.
And James couldn’t believe his luck. Did the Guardians really not recognize him, or did they have short term memory, or had they not yet received any warning of the alleged Germs?
The last bit was probably the case. James exchanged an equally surprised look with Cornie as they parked.
He glanced back at Jones, who was still as weak as before. Now, however, he had started to mumble thing like Winter or winter and Michel and bunnies and virus and cousin James.
“You go ahead,” Cornie said. “ There’s a First-Aid kit at the boot. I’ll try to patch him up quickly. Catch up with you soon.”
James was relieved. The idea of leaving Jones alone here in this state was absolutely threatening. And he had promised to get him back home alive.
He got down and went to meet the other Guardian. “On his left, muscle stricken chest was a badge that read in gold letters; M. Hark and underneath it read. Guardian- Heart Department.
James was shocked. The M there stood for Macrophage, the toughest form of Guardians there were. They were made for the big tasks, like protecting especially high ranked members like the presidents and getting rid of serious Bacteria such as Malaria and Cholera. These two might sound like a joke to you, but in here, they were a big deal, like Hitler and World War big deal.
In short, if a Macrophage was here, something dirty had happened here. James thoughts immediately went to Seli and Leo. Were they alright? He hoped so.
The big man shook James ‘hand steadily. He had quite a grip. “James Winter, I guess?” James nodded.
“I’m Captain Hark.” He looked sternly at James, as if he dared James to question his name, which James was about to. Where did the ‘Captain’ come from? But one look from this guy said James wouldn’t win the argument.
“Captain Hark,” He repeated.
“Good.”
They began walking towards the Heart’s gates. “Where’s your bud?” Captain Hark asked.
“Oh, she’s just taking care of something- Oh my-“James let out a gasp.
They had just passed through the Heart’s Ribs, and the sight on the compound wasn’t pleasant. A battle had obviously been fought here. Several Germs as well as a handful of Guardians lay dead on the floor. Puss was everywhere like it had actually rained the stuff. Guns were littered all over the ground. The few cars that were parked in here were riddled with bullet; James doubted if they’ll ever drive again.
“What happened here?” James asked in horror.
“Oh, they didn’t brief you? Some Germs waltzed into this place and open fire on the whole Heart. It took quite an army to get rid of them.
James spotted Leo sitting in a couch in the Atrium and excused himself.
“James!” Leo exclaimed as he saw James step through the shattered glass door. He stood up and punched James in the shoulder; their most formal way of greeting.
“We were so worried about you. We wanted to come over there but, well, you’ll see when we go upstairs.”
“Where’s Seli?” James asked.
“Upstairs. Now, tell me everything that happened, did you meet Rog-Singar?”
Met him? James wanted to say, I threw him off his feet with my mind. But all he said was “I’ll tell you and Seli together. Now let’s go.”
They stopped at a door marked CONTROL ROOM and Leo led the way inside. James followed. The room was mess. Computers lay scattered and broken across the floor, two tables were upturned and half broken. Brown envelopes and files were lying across the floor; they were probably once situated on the table.
And in one corner of the room, sat a beaten and disgruntled Rozin. He was clutching his side as if he had run several kilometres. Seli stood in front of him, asking him something.
Seli looked back, and when she saw James, her face lit with so much relief, James found it hard to stare into her eyes again. He had to work on that.
“You’re safe,” She said.
“Yeah,”James answered. “Fill you in the details later.” He hoped it wasn’t obvious that he was postponing the time to tell his side of the story. What had happened in there was just incredulous. It made him feel guilty and what if his friends were scared of him afterwards. Dang, he felt like a witch, hated by what he could do- or what the Transformat could do.
“What happened to him?” he asked, gesturing at Rozin. Leo told him he had come to met the Germ beaten up y Seli, and also discovered that he had planted bombs all over the Heart, set to go off any minute from now.
“But he won’t talk,” Leo finished, shooting the beaten u figure by the wall. “he won’t tell us how to disarm it or even where the darn bombs are.”
James walked slowly to Rozin, his friends following him closely.
“Deactivate the bombs,” He said firmly at Rozin, who just laughed shrilly in return.
“I thought the girl made it clear, I’m not talking.”
Leo sighed in exasperation. “If he’s not going to talk sooner or later we have to use other more cruel means. And we don’t have later.”
“Wait a minute,” James said remembering something. “Let me see the bombs. He has a few in the bag, right?”
Seli searched in Rozin’s bag and handed him a long cylindrical bomb. And inside the thing was the virus. Just as he expected. He looked up at hi friends’ puzzled faces. “If this is what he’s talking about, then he’s mislead us. The Heart wont detonate with fire, it’s gonna spew this green stuff called the virus.”
“And what’s it going to do,” said Leo.
“I don’t know, but, knowing Sinagr, it aint gonna be pretty.”
A memory flashed in James eyes. For a moment, Singar had pierced him with the virus containing syringe. The power welled up in him, and he screamed.
Leo screamed at Rozin to tell them how to disarm the bombs, and when the latter didn’t answer , he threw his gun. It hit Rozin squarely in the chest, making him cough out, specks of pus flying out of his mouth.
“Genius, Leo?” Seli scolded. “Give the bad guy a gun.” She bent down the pick it up, and then when Rozin made a sudden movement, James quickly snapped his gun and pointed it at teh Germ’s face. But Rozin had simply raised his hand to wipe blood off his nose, or that was what he made it seem.
Seli didn’t stand up. She crouched down next to Rozin and spoke with amazing softness that would have made James sill his inner secrets. “Rozin, why are you doing this?”
“We’re asking for our rights!” he shouted as loud as he could. “Yeah, that’s right,” he continued as the three of them looked surprised, taken aback.
What a ridiculous thing to ask for, James thought. Germs having rights. Brrr.
“Germs also have rights! We don?
??t deserve to be shot down on the shot, without any fair trail, when we’re doing something as normal as buying foodstuffs.”
“Singar’s brainwashed you, “James said. Though something in his gut was tugging him.
“And that’s not how to ask for your rights, “Seli said. The calmness and sweetness in her voice somehow agitated James.
“Allright, that’s enough,” he said angrily, pointing his gun at the Germ. “Tell us where Rozin is now or so help me, you’ll be my first murder.” He deliberately tightened his finger around the trigger, to add more effect, hoping Rozin would buy it.
He totally did. Maybe it was that look in his eyes that people were always talking about, or maybe he had acted more threatengly than he thought, but the corky, smug look on Rozin’s face melted into fear.
“ He- he has another bag of the virus that he’s going to sneak into the Brain to detonate it there. Gradually, with the downfall of the Brain, he’s going to take over the world.”
James noted he didn’t say take over the world like most villains would- with pride and gusto. He let his hand drop.
Seli sighed and was about to get up when her hand brushed against Rozin’s bare leg. She winced and brought her hand back sharply, as if electrocuted.
“Seli?” Leo said uncertainly.
Seli didn’t reply. She stared dumb foundedly at Rozin and gingerly touched his leg again, jerking it back again. She looked into Rozin’s eyes.
“he’s lying.” She said. Her voice shook a little.
James and Leo exchanged looks of disbelief. “Uh, Seli.” Leo said slowly. “I don’t think he’s lying. I mean he was threatened at gun point by James. I think he’s spilled all his bea-“
“He’s lying ok?” Seli’s voice rose. “I don’t know how I know but i do know he’s lying. I somehow felt it in his touch.” Her eyes strayed to James, searching for backup.
Amazingly, James did have backup. “I believe her,” he said, and Leo gave him one of those, of course you believe your pretty Seli looks. “I’m serious. Leo, think. How are you such a whiz at computers and mathematical equations suddenly when in the Outside you had a mark close to zero in your mock test?”
Leo looked sheepish, but James ploughed on. “And how come I’m such an eagle eye now. I couldn’t miss if it depended on my life- and I’ve never held anything like a pistol before. I think the Transformat grants us some kind of abilities.”
“Superpowers,” Leo teased. “But I believe you now. I have been feeling a little different and stronger now.”
For a moment it seemed they had forgotten about their little hostage, who was slowly crawling to his fallen gun unseen.
Before anyone could utter another word, the door burst open, and Guardians in black uniforms run into the room, long guns pointed at them, hands poised over the triggers.
They formed a semi-circle around James and his friends.
“Freeze!” one of them shouted through his visor. “Drop your weapons and put your hands in the air!”